Flammability is the measure of how readily something will burn or ignite. Flammability testing of different materials in a flammability chamber helps quantify the flammability of these materials. Many industries conduct regular flammability testing on materials they use in their products.
Some of the byproducts produced by the combustion of test materials can cause damage to the test chamber. Incomplete combustion of plastics and composites often produces a melted byproduct that flows like a liquid during the combustion process, yet solidifies when the specimen stops burning. Normally, the test chamber must be thoroughly cleaned after testing to remove the byproducts produced during a flammability test before another test can be performed. Heretofore, the burning test material has melted onto anything including the test chamber floor and the burner and pilot tubes. Test technicians may obviate the cleaning of the chamber floor by using aluminum foil to line and protect the floor from the melted byproduct, but protecting the burner and pilot tubes from melting material has not been as easy or convenient. The burner tube and pilot tube are largely unprotected from melting material which often enters both tubes, with the material solidifying shortly thereafter and clogging the tubes. The fine dimensions of both the burner and pilot tubes require care and precision when disassembling, cleaning and maintaining the tubes. Cleaning the tubes is very time consuming which causes a large amount of down time between tests.
Given the variety of materials that make up many products, separate tests on each material must be performed before the product as a whole can be approved for sale in the market. The down time associated with the cleaning of a flammability test chamber limits the amount of testing one can perform, which in turn can increase the time it takes to bring the overall product to market. As global competition grows, time delays associated with the cleaning of a test chamber can be costly for product suppliers and manufacturers.
Therefore, it is desirable to have a burner shield which is designed to be easily insertable into the flammability chamber between the short time after the burner flame is extinguished and prior to the test material melting to protect both the burner and pilot tubes from the ingress of melting test materials.
It is further desirable to have a burner shield which does not affect a standardized test procedure, yet protects the burner and pilot tubes from damage caused by melting test materials produced during flammability testing.
It is further desirable to have a burner shield that is easily manufactured and of low cost to the consumer that can be retro-fitted onto current horizontal flammability test chambers for both ease of use and for purposes of cost savings.